The Carst ist so close to Trieste and the other towns at sea, and yet so quiet, clean, tratditional. So wonderful to enjoy nature, wine, local food -

The city of Trieste is of great cultural interest, but it also offers plenty for the nature lover, especially in the Carso Triestino, part of the Karst Plateau, which it shares with southwestern Slovenia. With plenty of trails it is a paradise for hikers. Most popular is the Strada Vicentina (or Via Napoleonica) on the edge of the Karst, high above the Mediterranean with great views of the coastline. This 3,7km long walk is very popular. On most other trails one encounters only very few people. One day we took the bus to Opicina, where we started our a bit more than 4h hike to the old pond at 'Stagno di Banne' (Stari Kral), continuing through the village of Trebiciano (Trebce) to the village of Gropada, where we stopped for lunch at an Agroturismo restaurant. After that we went for a short stretch on the 'Alpe Adria Trail', which is 750km long, starting at the foot of the Grossglockner and going through Carinthia, Slovenia to the Italian border village of Muggio near Trieste. Another part was on the 'Josef Ressel Trail', which continues to the Sloven village of Lipica, famous for its stud farm of Lipizzan horses. We ended the hike in the village of Basovizza, from where we took a bus back to Trieste. The whole hike on the Plateau is with hardly any difference in altitudes and mostly around 400m asl. The scenery is typical 'Karst', a geological formation, which got its name from here, but is now used for similar topographies all over the world. On most of our walk we went through light forest, past drystone walls and 'Karren' (limestone pavements) and we saw several dolines (sinkholes), so typical for a Karst landscape, where water disappears through cracks underground. For this reason no rivers or brooks are encountered.